


the vanderwood route.

by earltrancy



Category: Mystic Messenger (Video Game)
Genre: Other
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-11-15
Updated: 2018-08-02
Packaged: 2019-02-02 18:02:13
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 1,393
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12731538
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/earltrancy/pseuds/earltrancy
Summary: there wasn't one, so i made one."Who the hell are you?" MC turned on her heels, eyes wide.Someone tall and imposing who was definitely not there two seconds ago stood before her with their arms crossed, a look of clear annoyance on their face.The person sighed. "Did Oh Seven send you as a decoy or something? How much did he pay you just to play a stupid prank on me?"





	1. prologue.

_Unknown: Are you there? See, nothing strange._

MC scanned the apartment building's third floor around her and shrugged. "I guess," she mumbled to herself, then reached for the door handle. 

"Who the hell are you?" MC turned on her heels, eyes wide.

Someone tall and imposing who was definitely not there two seconds ago stood before her with their arms crossed, a look of clear annoyance on their face.

The person sighed. "Did Oh Seven send you as a decoy or something? How much did he pay you just to play a stupid prank on me?"

MC felt her phone vibrate in her pocket a few times, but decided that this spy movie villain looking individual in front of her was a slightly more pressing matter. "Pay me? What... Where did you even come from, dude?"

With a roll of their eyes, they continued, "Nice. Look, can you just tell me where he is? Did he even tell you? I do have shit to do besides babysit the little freak, you know."

MC blinked. "He _who?_ What the hell are you talking about? I just came here to return something."

Suddenly, the stranger's eyes widened. "Oh, you have got to be kidding me."

MC just stared.

____________

Vanderwood laughed bitterly to themself.

Of _course_ a random civilian would trip Zero Seven's motion sensors at some random apartment minutes after he'd decided to sneak out somewhere. _Of course._ The dumbass probably just went to get more weird soda or something, why did they always overreact when it came to that guy?

 _Because that's half your job now,_ they thought to themself. Jesus Christ. The bastard was probably already home at that point, they might as well just leave.

But what the fuck was Vanderwood supposed to do about this civilian?

They looked her over. She was kind of small, long hair, probably around their age, maybe a bit younger. Cute, but that wasn't really the issue right now.

"Are you seriously checking me out right now?" She spoke, shaking them from their thoughts.

"What?! No, God. Just. I have no idea what to do with you," they said truthfully.

The chick raised an eyebrow. "Um, what?"

"Oh. Yeah, I can't exactly let you just leave. I don't know about you, you might be dangerous. And if I know anything about Oh Seven, you probably aren't supposed to see this place either... Damn. I'll probably have to take you back to the boss, hold on." Vanderwood got their phone out of their pocket and reluctantly called their superior.

____________

MC gaped blankly - holy shit, was this person _actually_ a spy movie villain?

Holy shit. No, nope, not today. She took a quiet deep breath and made a mad dash for the elevator.

At least, she started to. She got about six feet down the hall before she was pulled back by the collar of her shirt.

Her captor turned her around and used the hand holding their still ringing phone to restrain her while the other reached for something in their belt. _Shit. ___

__"Sorry about this," they said sincerely._ _

__Before she could reply, she jerked violently, and then everything went black._ _

_______________ _

__"Hey, boss?" Vanderwood said after the line picked up. They looked down at the girl again, passed out against the wall. "Yeah, I've kinda got a problem."_ _


	2. one - names.

When MC came to, she was moving. She rubbed her face and groaned before forcing her eyes open to the harsh sunlight.

 _Where the hell am i?_ she thought with still-slightly-groggy panic, wrenching forward until something made a _snap_ sound - oh, a seatbelt. That explains that, at least. She pulled the belt to loosen it and stretched, rubbing at her eyes again. What the -

“Oh, look who decided to wake up,” a vaguely familiar voice said without inflection. MC looked over sharply - and blinked at the black-clad figure driving. That was real?

“Fuck,” she declared, and fell back against the headrest. 

The driver snorted a laugh. “My thoughts exactly.”

“You say that as if you _had_ to kidnap me.”

“What, do you think this is my idea of a good time?”

“The kidnapping people thing? I don't know, probably. Stranger danger or whatever.” MC slipped her phone out of her pocket as subtly as possible while she spoke - it opened back to that weird app.

_Unknown: Hey, you still there?_

_Unknown: Who's that with you?_

_Unknown: ...Oh._

_Unknown: Well, that's a shame. I can't use you now._

_Unknown: Maybe someday we’ll meet again… MC._

As soon as she read the messages, they were gone - and replaced with ominous active greentext, too fast to read even if she could understand it.

_Unfortunately, Messenger.apk has stopped._

Then her phone crashed.

“...do I?” MC was still looking at her dark screen with her eyebrows drawn together when her captor’s voice registered.

She ran a hand through her hair and squeezed her eyes shut. “Uh, what was that?” 

She felt them look over and heard them sigh, then tap a ridge in the dashboard. “Put it here.”

At her non-response, they elaborated, “The phone. We're in a dead zone now, but I really don't need you to be a pain in my ass later with cops or whatever. This is the easy way.”

MC rolled her eyes but complied, not keen on getting on getting on a Bond villain’s bad side. “Crashed anyway,” she grumbled.

“What?”

“Nothing. What were you saying before?”

____________

Vanderwood felt some tension leave their shoulders when the girl put her cell on the dashboard. At least she appeared to have some amount of common sense.

“What were you saying before?”

What were they saying? Oh. They almost smirked. “I said, come on, I don't look like a dangerous stranger, do I?”

She gawked at them. _”Yes.”_

They couldn't help it; they chuckled. “Fair.”

“Wow, that was almost an emotion,” MC chuckled back.

Vanderwood rolled their eyes. “Am I like talking to a brick wall? I get that a lot.”

_________

“Yo, I didn't mean anything by it,” MC responded instinctively, then immediately questioned herself - was she comforting them? does Stockholm syndrome usually set in this quickly? 

Evidently they were put off by it too, by the look they gave her. She coughed.

They shook their head, then flicked on the radio. She sighed gratefully, leaning back against the seat and closing her eyes again. 

__________

“Hey, come on. We're here.”

Vanderwood leaned against the open passenger-side door of the car, looking at the girl in disbelief. She fell asleep. The drive to HQ couldn't have been more than twenty minutes.

Her mouth hung open, but she still somehow had a lock of hair stuck to her lip. Graceful. 

“Hey… Girl. You gotta wake up now.”

Just as they moved to shake her shoulder, she yawned, then opened her eyes. “I do have a name, you know, Mysterious Stranger.”

“...Don't call me that.” Sounds too much like something Oh Seven would say. 

“Then don't call me ‘Girl’.”

She took off her seatbelt and slid down from the car, ignoring Vanderwood’s hand when they offered it. Fair enough. They wouldn't trust them either, if they were her. 

“Fine. What is it, then?”

She gave them a look, probably surprised that that was all it took. “I’m called MC.”

They nodded, repeating, “Okay. MC. You gotta wake up now.”

She glared in annoyance before rubbing her eyes with her hands. “I'm awake. Are _you?_ Shouldn't you have me handcuffed or something?”

__________

MC flinched as soon as the words left her mouth, and she swore she heard Mysterious Stranger laugh. 

“Do you want me to?” 

Something in their tone made her blush, but she ignored it. “I mean, no, but what if I run?” 

They smiled. Maybe. This person had really mastered the art of non-expression. “You can if you want. I miss getting to use my taser.”

_What the fu-_

“That was a tazer?!”

She rubbed the spot from before, eyes wide. The stranger snorted. 

_Beep._ “Hey, don't…!” 

– Oh. Just a key card. 

They pocketed it and pressed another button by the door lock, which produced another beep.

“Special Agent Mary Vanderwood.”

 _”Security disarmed,”_ replied a tinny, artificially feminine voice, before a final long beep. 

MC raised an eyebrow. “Is that your real name?” 

They looked back at her and smiled - _actually_ smiled. “Of course not.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> i'm baaaaack~

**Author's Note:**

> tumblr: [psychzen](psychzen.tumblr.com)


End file.
